I'm not a big fan of the guardian breeds (I like my dog that I can trust with everybody), so oh how I wish I had the money to have Inara trained enough so that when I go to investigate a weird noise in the house, she comes with me instead of takes my warm place on the couch! Is it asking too much for her to at least LOOK scary, like she might bite somebody???

"Remember - every time your dog gets somewhere on a tight leash *a fairy dies and it's all your fault.* Think of the fairies." http://www.positivepetzine.com"

well, there's one extreme or another You COULD have a dog that at one point, randomly selected (like I was surprised, so it isn't like I was communicating my nerves) people to guard you from! How about that? Better alternative?

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

I'll let you have the boys for a week, and you are SO gonna appreciate Inara.Any noise - real or imagined - is investigated at my house and in my yard... preferably at 3 AM in the morning and paired w/lots of howl-barking. A freakin' ant couldn't sneak up on us without Sepp being on high alert.

This is one thing that Renee finally does well. She'll ignore non-odd noises, including (finally!) the neighbors, but will bark her big, scary dog bark at weird stuff. She's starting to be much better about shutting up when I ask her to, as well. And if I'm investigating something, she's right there with me, unless of course a squirrel or cat happens to run in the other direction.

One time when Phil was out of town for work, there was some sort of Police standoff on my street in the middle of the night. I woke up and could hear radio/walkies and some men talking outside my house. It sounded very close, so I crept down the stairs looking out the windows and realized that they were two officers hiding in between my house and my neighbors, right next to our front porch. Scared the crap outta me at first! My FOUR dogs all remained sound asleep in my bed under the blankets.

Although when Phil is out for the night, they usually go running and barking mad at any noise they hear that MIGHT be Daddy coming home.

, Twitch the parrot is actually our alarm system for when something isn't right. He makes his alarm calls when he sees something going on outside the windows. He alerts me when he sees people in the street or big cars (like a fire engine once). The funniest one was during the day when he was carrying on like you wouldn't believe-- calling out loud panic alerts-- and I came to investigate what was upsetting him. There was a woodchuck sitting on my neighbors sidewalk.

Oscar will hit the glass in our front door if someone speaks to him through it Don't you want him?

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, tomorrow doesn't look good either.
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"You didn't know of the magical powers of the break stick? It's up there with genies and Harry Potter as far as magic levels go." SisMorphine 01/07/07

I have twice so far had my dogs search the house when the alarm system went off, but I knew no one else was home. It's very comforting to be able to tell your dogs to go clear the house! BUT at the same time I can't just up and hire a dog walker because it'll take a while before Teeny would let anyone in the house without me here. SOOOO I guess you just have to pick what you'd rather have. Every once in a while I think it would be nice to have a dog walker. LOL!

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -Anatole France

My dog's mostly useless too, guard-wise. Won't even bark when someone rings the doorbell. I do like the fact that he likes everyone too, and is not threatening to people who I invite in. Just wiggles his butt.

It's happened once or twice that he's low-growled or barked at someone/something outside in the back, and THAT freaked me out. When a dog that never barks or growls at a noise does, you know (or at least believe) that there's something fishy. Nothing happened, but I was home alone and close to my baseball bat (cause I don't have guns) and my phone.

pitbullmamaliz wrote:However much I may joke, I love having the dog that allows anybody in. Like you said, it makes it much easier on those rare occasions that she needs somebody else to care for her.

Yeah luckily my parents, sister, BIL, and two of my best friends can come and go as they please without issue so I have SOME help (possibly a few of my staff members could care for them as well, but I haven't tried it). When I move I'll have to hire a dog walker so I'm planning on finding someone as soon as I get out there and spending a month introducing Teeny to him/her. I don't anticipate a problem with Blue as he doesn't exactly have a guard-type personality, but you never know!

"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." -Anatole France